Thursday, December 3, 2009

Worlds Collide

December Third.

Just happens to be the birthday of two musician that played prominently in my youth.

First, Andy Williams.Ahh, those December days before Christmas, listening to 8-tracks of Andy singing about the joys of the season. So pure, so innocent.Secondly, Ozzy Osbourne. A little different influence going on there. Cranking Erik's tune box, steal my parents booze, and plotting crimes. I like to honor these pillars of my development yearly by taking a half day and going for a ride. This worked out well with my schedule seeing as I had deliveries East of the River.

East of the River is known for two things; easy women with big hair (who might be seen at an Ozzy show), and great, technical riding.I don't know about the women, as some how they always were able to resist my charms, but the riding is the epitome of New England technical singletrack.

To honor the self proclaimed Prince of Darkness, I chose to ride this mecca of gnar with Kenda Karma 1.9's. Laziness is probably a better description than choice, as I did a quick change from cross mode to mtb on the Singular. Impressed myself by gettin'er done in under 15 minutes. Changing to some decent tires would have added 15 minutes on a good day, to an hour if the gods of sealant were not smiling upon me.

Wrong tires or not, the Ozzy / Andy paradigm, on the eve of a full moon was working it's freaky mojo as I rode in a short sleeve jersey and shorts in December!

Thank you James.The Karmas were about the worst possible tire choice for Case, but what are you going to do?To make matters worse, the valve on my rear wheel was clogged. I finally had to unscrew the valve core to lower the pressure enough to make things somewhat manageable. But I was riding in shorts in December so it was all good!Mike- I bet NJ is very similar; I saw photos of Maryland that I could have sworn were taken right down the road from my parents.